Stichwort 'Linke'

In the federal elections in Germany (2017-09-24) more than 1 million voters switched from the moderate conservative to the rightists. 300,000 of the voters who previously voted for the social democrates moved to the rightists. 1,300,000 voters supported the rightists who previously didn’t vote at all.

My personal opinion:
The rightists always have been there, but only recently they were able to develop structures which allowed them to be visible in the federal parliament. A driving force behind that could be an increasing economical inequality (explanation in German how to measure economic inequality) with a growing group of people who feel left behind by the established parties. This feeling probably had been significantly intensified by refugees who are perceived by AfD voters as cultural and economical competitors. The refugees, the internet and the effects of (not only economic) globalization seem to have served as major catalysts for the emergence and growth of the AfD.
I think that many AfD supporters would support a leader like Donald Trump. He surely doesn’t recieve any sympathies from the members of any other party in the German parliament. Germany still is a mature democracy.